Greg Yates
Professor |path = Serial kidnapper Serial/spree rapist Serial/spree killer Serial arsonist |family = Susie Frain Unborn child |status = Deceased |playedby = Dallas Roberts |first = PD: "The Number of Rats" |last = }} Dr. Gregory "Greg" William Yates was a prime suspect in a series of rapes, kidnappings, and murders in New York, Illinois, North Carolina, New Orleans, and New Jersey. Background Yates was born and raised in North Carolina. During his adult life, he went to medical school at Duke University. There, he met Susie Frain when she was a freshman and they started dating. The couple also got acquainted with fellow med student Carl Rudnick and his then-girlfriend Lena Grunwald. They all eventually graduated together and Yates became a surgeon for some time. Yates and Susie later made plans to move to New York after Yates accepted a job as a professor at Columbia University. Before he left, he kidnapped, raped, and murdered a woman. He then took advantage of the move to discreetly transport her body and bury her in a forest near a beach in New York City. While in New York, he also acquired a residency at Presbyterian Hospital and Rudnick became an attending surgeon. Yates also continued to rape and murder women while disposing them in his burial ground. He eventually raped and murdered two nurses, crimes that were investigated by Detectives Stabler and Benson. What connected both of them was that Yates painted their nails green during the crimes and burned them to death afterwards, instead of burying them. He later kidnapped, raped, and murdered another nurse named Debra McCulloch, but unlike the other two, he buried her along with his other victims on the beach. Afterwards, he moved around, raping and killing women wherever he went, bringing the bodies to New York to bury them. Crime Spree Yates eventually got a job in Chicago with MedCare and started his rape/murder spree again by targeting a nurse named Victoria Lewyn. He rapes and beats her, paints her nails green, and sets her home on fire to kill her. (Fire: "We Called Her Jellybean") Officers Kim Burgess and Sean Roman later catch Yates driving a car fleeing the scene of the fire and take him in, saying the car he is driving struck someone. Yates is cooperative with Detectives Lindsay and Amaro, giving them all of his information as they talk about his work records. All the while, he eyes Lindsay. When they start showing photos of the victims, he becomes suspicious and denies knowing them. Yates then leaves after he asks if he is under arrest and they say no. He greets Nadia Decotis on the way out. Yates then calls Lindsay and asks to meet her at a park, which she agrees to do. Before the meeting, he rapes and kills another woman. Afterwards, he sets up a remote incendiary device to be triggered while they are talking and goes to meet Lindsay. He approaches her and insists they walk and talk, which Lindsay reluctantly agrees to. Yates starts talking about the revolution in Egypt and brings up the law of unintended consequences. He then leaves Lindsay as they get the call. After leading them on a wild goose chase, he kidnaps Nadia as she is getting a cake for Lindsay's birthday. (P.D.: "The Number of Rats") Yates forces her into the back of his car and takes her on a road trip all the way back to New York City. When they arrive, he forces her to change cars while she leaves her scarf in the old car. He then rapes, tortures, and murders Nadia and buries her in his burial ground. He then charms his way into an apartment, where he rapes a pair of roommates and bludgeons both of them, killing one and putting the other in a coma. Before Yates is arrested, he proposes to Susie and, in interrogation, briefly hints at what he did to Nadia. With the fiancé's help, they eventually find his burial ground and charge Yates for the rape, sodomy, and murder in the first degree (concerning Nadia, their strongest case). Yates puts on a defense to create reasonable doubt through Nadia's past as a hooker and previous suspicion on another suspect: Will Halstead. However, A.D.A. Rafael Barba tricks Yates into revealing his true nature to the jury and he is convicted of all charges, being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in a maximum-security prison. Before sentencing, he received one final strangling from Sergeant Hank Voight. ( : "Daydream Believer") Imprisonment When a body washes up where Yates buried his victims, Rollins drives to the prison where he is held to question him. Rollins accuses Yates of killing this new victim; Yates implies someone else is responsible but won't elaborate. He asks Rollins to wait for a while and come back when he is ready to share, and she leaves. Yates then calls Rollins twice to set up a meeting and she agrees, but is forced to bring Fin with her, which Yates isn't happy about. Yates then reveals an incident from 2002 in which he was called to a townhouse by another doctor to treat his wounds, and Yates suspected he killed someone. He gives them the address while withholding the doctor's name. When the SVU discovers a body in the townhouse, Yates claims to know who she is and who killed her, but will only talk if they grant him conjugal visits with Susie. Barba reluctantly agrees, and after one such visit, Yates reveals that the woman is Lena and the killer is Rudnick, his friend from school. Benson and Rollins don't believe him as they personally knew Rudnick and leave in disgust, thinking Yates was lying to them. When Yates hears that Rudnick is an M.E., he asks if Rudnick autopsied any of his victims. When they confirm it, Yates theorizes that such an act would be a trigger and would cause him to kill again. He then tells them to check the body that washed ashore again, as he is positive the body was cut up while alive. When SVU starts to seriously consider Rudnick as a suspect, they ask Susie to find a photo of Rudnick posing as Lena to prove their theory. Susie eventually finds the photo, but Yates tells her to use the photo to blackmail Rudnick into setting him free. This backfires when Rudnick kills Susie. When he doesn't get a call from Susie as he expected, Yates starts to get concerned. When Rollins calls Yates, he shares his concerns and asks if Rudnick is still imprisoned. When she informs him he made bail, Yates realizes what happened. The police eventually finds Susie's dismembered body washed ashore and Rollins notifies him of her death. He then asks them to see her body and to test to see if she is pregnant. ( : "Devil's Dissections") When Rudnick is arrested for the three murders he committed, A.D.A. Barba sends Rollins to talk to Yates for more information they can use at the trial. He tells Rollins that Susie went to Rudnick to blackmail him for his freedom in exchange for hiding the photo. Yates speculates that Susie wanted him out so they could raise their baby together, stating that he knew she was pregnant even though she didn't tell him about it. He mentions her scent was different as the reason for his deduction, and then uses that pretext to imply that he knows Rollins is pregnant. Rollins leaves in utter shock as she didn't know herself. When Rudnick is convicted of Rachel and Susie's murders, but Lena's murder charge is dismissed, Yates expresses his disappointment. He then subtly confesses that after Rudnick killed Lena and called him over to have wounds inflicted on him treated, he gave Rudnick advice on how to better control his future victims and helped hide the body. Rollins leaves as Yates taunts her with this information and her pregnancy. Later, he heads to the cafeteria, where he and Rudnick sit down to eat lunch as they catch up on their lives. ( : "Criminal Pathology") Known Victims *1995-2014: **Unknown dates: ***Durham, North Carolina: Unnamed woman ***New York: ****Stottville: Jess Crye ****Syosset: Unnamed student ***New Jersey: Allison ***New Orleans, Louisiana: Stella Quinn ***Unknown locations: Two unnamed women **2004, New York: ***Alice Whitlock ***Lisa Hoffman ***Debra McCulloch *2015: **Chicago, Illinois: ***Unknown date: Charlotte Reegan ***April 9: Victoria Lewyn ***April 12: ****Unnamed woman ****Nadia Decotis **April 13, New York City, New York: The apartment assaults: ***Renee Walden ***Nila Green Appearances *''Chicago P.D.: **Season 2: "The Number of Rats" *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'': **Season 16: "Daydream Believer" **Season 17: "Devil's Dissections" • "Criminal Pathology" Category:SVU Characters Category:SVU Recurring Characters Category:Crossover Characters Category:Medical practitioners Category:Physicians Category:Serial Killers Category:Serial Rapists Category:Serial Kidnappers Category:Males Category:Arsonists Category:Spree Rapists Category:Spree Killers Category:Characters Based on Real People